


where the love light gleams

by dizzy



Series: we're all fucking fine 2020 advent fics [10]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:09:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28048245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy
Summary: Just Dan and Phil being companions through a December day.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Series: we're all fucking fine 2020 advent fics [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035990
Comments: 14
Kudos: 94





	where the love light gleams

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: _Dan and Phil and companionable silence. I'm looking for peak domestic content, going the whole day without really saying a word. Not because they're fighting or in a bad mood, just two companions through life spending a day together._

It's after eleven when Dan wakes up. The day outside is drizzly and wet and all around miserable. 

Probably a good thing he has no need or desire to step foot out in it. 

Phil isn't home. He's already sent a text telling Dan that he's gone out to do a bit of filming. Dan feels neither relief nor sadness at it. They've woken up together more mornings than not for almost a decade, he doesn't crumble to pieces with a bit of straying from routine anymore. 

The text also says to check the fridge, so Dan stumbles out of the bedroom wearing clothes only as a concession to the weather. He does enjoy the way their new heated floors feel against his toes but London is still London and it's hard to shake the chill. 

Maybe he'll make a fire. He needs to get some more copy edits done, deadlines looming large and intimidating on his calendar. In the fridge he finds an iced soy latte flavored with gingerbread, Phil's latest coffee concoction of which Dan's overwhelmingly in favor. They're both trying to ditch the Starbucks habit and if that means Phil becomes a culinary evil genius in their kitchen, then so be it. 

-

Dan stares at the tree in this place, their new place, and loses himself in his thoughts. 

They have their own traditions. They have years of cultivation put into ranking lists and tiers. They have their collection of ornaments, because Phil insists on sentiment over aesthetic. They have playlists they add to every year. 

They have Mariah, of course. Always Mariah, blasted on the first of December and at least once a day every day after that until Dan is begging for mercy, _for fuck's sake, Phil, it's January 3rd, let it go._

They have evenings spent sipping festive drinks and decorating their flat - so many years of evenings that the flat in question has changed four times over by now. Life feels so different from that first Christmas together, before there even was a flat. Giddy romps in the snow and Dan bashfully enjoying a Christmas Eve meal with the Lesters before a lonely train ride back home. 

-

Phil is back by midafternoon, but Dan's in a workflow so he doesn't do more than grunt at Phil as he passes by the office. 

He's already texted Phil a thank you for the coffee, and then texted again to say there was lunch in the microwave for him to heat up. 

He listens to the sound of movement and rustling around, pausing to smile briefly at the sound of Phil dropping a fork, then goes back to his work. 

-

Dan needs to stretch his limbs and take a break from staring at the computer screen, or he thinks he might go mad. He knows the ground will be soggy outside but he wants to take advantage of the break in the bad weather. 

He changes into something more suitable for walking around than his Star Wars pyjama pants, and steps into the brisk air with a hoodie pulled up over his ears and his mask firmly in place. The park they're closest to has changed and he enjoys the newness of it. His chest is burning pleasantly by the time he circles it a couple of times and maybe it's a pathetic distance, all told, but he's only running for himself, so who the fuck will judge? 

It feels odd not to pop into a shop or two on his way back, but he doesn't. He walks with a clearance from the people around him and his hands jammed into his pockets and tries not to think of how odd it feels to be isolated in a crowd. 

He's glad for the warmth of the house when he steps back in. He puts his shoes by the door and tugs his gloves off, dropping them haphazardly onto the small table where they keep extra masks and other odds and ends. 

He can't hear Phil moving around so he goes to investigate, poking his head into a couple of rooms before he finds Phil asleep on the sofa in the lounge. He must have gotten up a good bit earlier than Dan, then. He's putting a lot of work in this month. Dan is a strange mixture of proud and pleased and relieved he's not a part of it and missing it at the same time. 

He gets a quilt from the back of one of the chairs and drapes it over Phil. Phil doesn't wake up. 

Dan goes to retrieve his laptop from the office and makes himself comfortable in a chair large enough for an impossibly tall man to curl up as comfortably as a child. 

-

Phil sighs deeply, then rolls onto his back. He sighs deeply again, and Dan knows all of his tells, so he's got his eyes trained on Phil as Phil wakes up. 

When Phil sees Dan watching, he flings an arm over his face and makes a grunting sound. Phil is not a morning person, this is true, but a less commonly known fact is that Phil isn't just not a morning person. He's also not a post-nap person. Generally he's just out of commission for a good half an hour after resurfacing from unconsciousness. 

He gets himself up off the sofa and pops his back and yawns without covering his mouth and then trudges into the kitchen. Dan turns the music he's listening to through his airpods back on and loses himself in his reading again, barely glancing up when Phil returns a few minutes later with his own laptop in one hand and an afternoon coffee in the other. 

-

Their alarm goes off at six in the evening. Alexa rings out a reminder that it's the end of the day and Phil snaps his laptop shut. He gets up and walks out of the lounge, headed toward the office. 

It's set to do that every day. It's their cut off point for working, barring emergencies like Phil needing to make edits to a sponsored video or Dan having procrastinated right up to a deadline. 

They're both much better at avoiding those situations than they used to be. Work goes to rest in work places, and their evenings are for hanging out with friends (virtually) or playing games together or watching films or any of those other things people with an actual divide between work and life do. 

Dan stretches in his seat, untangling his legs out from under him. He walks into the kitchen. They're trying to actually use this kitchen and order less delivery and takeaway. They're still not really the best cooks, and probably won't ever be, but they've got leftover rice and a load of veggies so Dan has the stir fry started by the time Phil sticks his head in the doorway and makes a questioning sound. 

Dan just shakes his head, letting Phil know that he's got it. Phil disappears again and Dan isn't sure where but he when he hears Mariah start up he chuckles to himself. 

-

Dan brings in two bowls of what he thinks is a very passable stir fry. Phil already has the lights dimmed low and the tree turned on, dancing colour on all the walls. Dan will turn the bulbs to something a little more calming soon, but Phil likes the brightness. 

Phil makes a hungry sound and takes his bowl, passing off the remote to Dan. They're halfway through a show about orphans and chess that they're both obsessed with, so there wasn't any need to come to an agreement on what to watch with food. 

They eat as the sound of the show fills their ears and when their bowls are empty, Phil takes Dan's to the kitchen and comes back with a bag of chocolates they both pick from until there are wrappers littering the coffee table. Stomach full and engrossed in the show, Phil shuffles in closer to Dan and tugs the blanket he'd been using earlier over them both. Dan's arm drapes across Phil's shoulders. 

Neither of them even notice that the rain's started again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Sarah for beta reading and also being the person I'd most want to just spend an afternoon quietly doing our own thing in the same room with.


End file.
